Jaipur police on Tuesday arrested two alleged members of an interstate gang accused of stealing 251 luxury watches worth an estimated Rs 2.5 crore from a luxury watch showroom on Tonk Road on October 1, The Times of India reported. The arrested men were identified as Ajay Prasad alias Ajay Jaiswal, 41, and Dinesh Paswan, 46, both residents of the Ghorasahan area of Bihar's Motihari district.

Source: The Times of India (Jaipur)

Police traced the two men to Motihari and secured six days' custody for interrogation. The arrests came after a 25-day investigation spanning nearly 3,000 km and more than 50 raids across Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Bihar, with police also tracking the suspects' movements towards the Nepal border, according to the report.

CCTV footage from inside the store, reported by the SWNS news agency, showed two individuals removing watches from display cases in the early hours of October 1 after the showroom's shutter was allegedly forced open at around 4 am, and leaving with the timepieces packed into bags.

Source: SWNS

According to police, the gang had conducted a recce before allegedly breaking the showroom's shutter and removing the watches, covering the shopfront with a curtain or bedsheet to conceal their actions. Jaipur police formed three teams, drawn from Bajaj Nagar police station and two special teams, and investigators examined around 800 CCTV recordings, tracking the suspects from the showroom along possible escape routes through Delhi and Ghaziabad to Bihar, where clearer footage helped identify the alleged gang members.

Police said six other alleged gang members have been identified and efforts are under way to arrest them. Police also conducted raids in Gurugram, Jaipur, Kotputli and areas around Raxaul, coordinating with personnel deployed along the Nepal border amid concerns that the stolen watches could be moved across the border.

Police said the gang targeted businesses selling high-value watches, mobile phones and jewellery in major cities, allegedly surveying premises before striking, usually in the early hours, and concealing the shopfront while breaking in. The case was registered at Bajaj Nagar police station, and the allegations against the arrested men are yet to be tested in court.